MS may have reacted but PS4 is in control

Sony has been heavily criticised for being reactionary throughout the course of this generation. The platform holder that so confidently set the tone of the gaming landscape with the PSone and the PlayStation 2 was caught off guard by the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii, an oversight that prompted it to play catch-up in almost every area of its ecosystem. The much maligned PlayStation 3 was late to the market, expensive, architecturally baffling, and offered a gaming network embarrassingly inferior to Xbox Live. But that’s not the case anymore.
Microsoft may have made the right decision, but such a kneejerk reaction shows a lack of belief in the product that it devised
While the actions of Microsoft overnight may have erased one of the PlayStation 4’s selling points, the platform holder can take heart from the manner in which it forced its competitor’s hand. Consumers may have indirectly impacted the corporation’s colossal backtrack by diminishing its pre-order projections, but let’s not forget that Sony set the precedent that forced its counterpart to change course. It may have amplified its own policies to win a public relations war that’s evaporated overnight, but it showed a genuine confidence in its own product and services that we haven’t seen for some time.
Microsoft, on the other hand, looks weak. It may have ultimately made the right decision to remove its abhorrent digital rights management policies, but such a kneejerk reaction shows a distinct lack of belief in the original product that it spent years labouring behind closed doors to devise. “We’re confident that gamers are going to love our vision of the future, and what we’re going to offer for gaming,” said spokesperson Larry Hryb in an interview with Reddit Games less than five days ago. And yet here we are.

Such dramatic fumbling shows that the Xbox One is out of touch – and it’s not a criticism that’s emerged purely over the past few days. Following the platform’s initial unveiling, many questioned the console’s bizarre emphasis on traditional television consumption in an age where we’re gradually transitioning to on-demand. Sony may be comparatively playing it safe by solely appealing to the core gamer, but at least it’s giving the impression that it believes in its product. Microsoft thought that it was riding into a battle with the likes of Apple and Google at its late May unveiling – and yet it’s been pulled into a clash with its arch-nemesis in the gaming space.
Sony may have lost the opportunity to cheerlead at its competitor’s expense, but it still has a system that it clearly believes in
And that the company’s now been forced to backtrack on a programme that it clearly deemed both suitable and acceptable for consumer consumption shows that Sony shouldn't be too worried at this point in time. These are the kind of blunders that the Japanese giant coveted when it deemed rumble technology a last generation requirement. The difference is, this time they're amplified.
And for that reason, we hope that the mood today was not too subdued in Sony’s regional offices across the globe. What will Microsoft’s massive Xbox One-Eighty mean for the PS4? Very little, we suspect. The company already embarked upon the right path, and while it may have lost the opportunity to cheerlead at its competitor’s expense, it still has the advantage of a system that it’s clearly believed in since its inception. And that should show when the final product deploys on store shelves later this year.
The current story may be the Xbox maker’s change in policies, but the real narrative is the transformation in the respective platform holders. Sony limped into the current generation with a cumbersome and calamitous console against a nimble and hungry competitor. It’s debatable whether the Xbox One’s missteps will ever be considered to be on par with the PS3, but that the comparisons can even be drawn at this stage evidences a role reversal that’s far more fascinating than the removal of DRM.

Nah, more like for the parents buying consoles for their kids this christmas. For people that don't want kinect shoved down their throat...for people that want to save money and put it towards more games...for people that don't want to pay 100 dollars more for a weaker console...shall I go on?

I like how the author is looking beyond the concrete in a way many people haven't, quite yet. When comparing both consoles, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are essentially on equal playing field. Aside from differences in the type of RAM used, both machines are fairly on par with one another with neither showing a clear advantage (although the RAM difference does arguably give the PS4 a long-term advantage in terms of graphical capabilities). But there is something to be said about the confidence each company has in its product, and thus the confidence consumers have in it.

The fact that Microsoft was so quick to reverse itself illustrates that they truly weren't expecting the kind of backlash they received, something that continues to stun me. Knowing that MS isn't entirely sure of itself, that it has lost faith in an aspect of its new console that it at first seemed ready to gruesomely defend, doesn't have me running towards the Xbox One with confidence.

Way too early to say anything about these system other than launch price, until the game software matures a bit, its hard to derive anything about the systems, their features or the respective power of each system.

Originally Posted by Two4DaMoney

Nah, more like for the parents buying consoles for their kids this christmas. For people that don't want kinect shoved down their throat...for people that want to save money and put it towards more games...for people that don't want to pay 100 dollars more for a weaker console...shall I go on?

That argument is as thin as the paper the theoretical specs they are written on.
I need to see them running side by side before I decide one has an advantage over the other.

The Xbox-One Eighty. I love it. I like how the author is looking beyond the concrete in a way many people haven't, quite yet. When comparing both consoles, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are essentially on equal playing field. Aside from differences in the type of RAM used, both machines are fairly on par with one another with neither showing a clear advantage (although the RAM difference does arguably give the PS4 a long-term advantage in terms of graphical capabilities). But there is something to be said about the confidence each company has in its product, and thus the confidence consumers have in it. The fact that Microsoft was so quick to reverse itself illustrates that they truly weren't expecting the kind of backlash they received, something that continues to stun me. Knowing that MS isn't entirely sure of itself, that it has lost faith in an aspect of its new console that it at first seemed ready to gruesomely defend, doesn't have me running towards the Xbox One with confidence.

The RAM isnt the only diffrence hardware wise. The PS4 GPU is also quite a bit more powerful. That being said great post.

The RAM isnt the only diffrence hardware wise. The PS4 GPU is also quite a bit more powerful. That being said great post.

The issue is, even on the specs we think we know, the GPU on the One is far more efficient than the PS4.

People tend to forget that, yes the PS4 is essentially a similar setup to the Xbox 360 Unified memory system, except for some very important mitigating factors, and that that the 360 has a huge buffer that the PS4 does not have.
It will be interesting to see what happens, but the basic rule of thumb here, is for every thing you put on the screen on the PS4, you use double the bandwidth vs the 360 (or even the paper specs of the Xbox One for that matter),(once to read it, once to write it.

Way too early to say anything about these system other than launch price, until the game software matures a bit, its hard to derive anything about the systems, their features or the respective power of each system. That argument is as thin as the paper the theoretical specs they are written on.
I need to see them running side by side before I decide one has an advantage over the other.

There's no need to see them side by side because they look exactly the same. The same thing with the Xbox 360 and PS3, graphically they have the same amount of power. I just liked PS4 more than the Xbox One because of the amazing exclusive games, cheaper online payment (PLUS FREE GAMES EVERY MONTH!), the cool features and even the looks. The power of the two is too similar to have a argument over. It's like fighting over whether people should call a certain sport football or soccer.

There's no need to see them side by side because they look exactly the same. The same thing with the Xbox 360 and PS3, graphically they have the same amount of power. I just liked PS4 more than the Xbox One because of the amazing exclusive games, cheaper online payment (PLUS FREE GAMES EVERY MONTH!), the cool features and even the looks. The power of the two is too similar to have a argument over. It's like fighting over whether people should call a certain sport football or soccer.

I agree about them being so similar, in fact the more I look into it they are so similar its crazy, they do things differently but get the same results. Take bandwidth, the Ps4 can read or write at 170gb/s but not both at once.
The Xbox One can read AND write at 68/102 gb/s. Even though the PS4 looks faster on paper, its not as multi tasking, end result, it averages out the exact same speed over 2 cycles.

Much has been made of the Ps4's compute, with its 18 cu's, but again, the One mitigates this by allowing for other tasks to be done via Move engines while compute is taking place in the GPU. Again, a wash.

And last but not least the Onion and Garlic bus's which Sony "solidified" so that the GPU had cache access to the CPU , also possible on the One as the GPU can write directly yo the level 2 cache of the CPU.

That doesn't matter because his is so so stwong....Its so stwong it's weak, but not weaker than yours.

The PS4 GPU is a single minded system, the Xbox One GPU is very multitasking, having read and write clients at the same time...that maybe a massive advantage...time will tell, it all could get lost in the snappy add ons and multi tasking of the system O/S.

The PS4 GPU is a single minded system, the Xbox One GPU is very multitasking, having read and write clients at the same time...that maybe a massive advantage...time will tell, it all could get lost in the snappy add ons and multi tasking of the system O/S.

I guess i'll have to take your word for that because I don't really know much about that stuff. I can only go by what I see and I haven't seen any game that says one is significantly more powerful than the other. I'm sure that rumored 3 billion dollar deal MS made with AMD was for a good reason.

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